Silk Road Mountain Race (SRMR)

Bjorn Lenhard

Surprised by that. But also not surprised. looking forward to this!

Just read the info , it makes trans con sound easy !

A few other riders of interest:

#35 Lee Pearce. TCR veteran and one of the "ferry dash" group from TCRNo3.

#42 Peta McSharry. Known to many on here. All round good person and strong and brave cyclist.

#44 Jenny Tough.

#58 Mikko Makipaa TCR legend, just completed 6 out of 6 TCRs

#86a Min Hao Hsiu Riding as part of a pair. Former TCR hero and ultra-ultra long distance cyclist from Taiwan.

92a Chris Hall. "Mister 107" Star of Cade videos and all round good egg.
92b Rob Quirk. Frame builder

Is that Min from 2016? Wow, that's great!

Massive respect to those attempting this. Seems so much harder logistics-wise compared to the TCR.

Surprised, but also kinda not surprised by Bjorn anymore.

Is that Min from 2016? Wow, that's great!

I think it is. She is amazing.

Not sure of the numbers but will be watching Rich N and Shona O, riding as a pair, own my ex-LBS and completed the Highland Trail on their tandoom. Not planning on being the fastest but in it to finish.

Packing a bit of extra food as they're not confident relying on availability of veggie options along the way!

Two weeks to do 1700 km so 113 km a day but the real kicker is this:

"To earn a successful finish you need to complete the course before the 1st of September for the after party. We will provide transport back to Bishkek the day after the party."

In other words, if you don't make it on time you're on your own and a long way from home and, by the way, we are not providing a broom wagon.

Not sure of the numbers but will be watching Rich N and Shona O

#14b and 14a

This should be interesting. Hope one of you lot posts lots of pics from the route so I get some idea of what they're riding through.

The scenery looks amazing.

Pics or it didn't happen.

I did a bikepacking trip in Kyrgyzstan for two weeks in June/July and did some of the roads this race will take in. I'm looking forward to following it. I can confirm it will be tough!

We did it on 29er MTBs.

We didn't find water being an issue, there are loads of streams to filter from. I think I carried about 2 litres mostly but more before cooking. Food is tricky though. We had to carry five days worth of food for the first part of our trip, which take a lot of space. The latter part of our route did go through settlements but the range of food is quite limited in shops. The riders will have to make do with very basic supplies.

I don't think there are any animals that can harm you. We never spotted wolves or evidence of wolves and my guess is they are kept very much under control (or possibly made non existent) by the shepherds.

I think the biggest challenges will be weather and terrain. We largely had hot sunny weather and rode in shorts and t-shirts, but we also had snow. A lot of the route is over 3000m (getting up to 3,600 - 3,800m) and the weather arrives very quickly. We had literally a blizzard with horizontal snow about 15 minutes after warm weather and sunshine. I think a tent is essential rather than a bivvy, as are proper warm clothes. It was often below zero overnight.

The other challenge is understanding the how rugged the terrain is. All of the roads take longer than you expect, even if you expect them to take longer than you expect. Some of the parts where you expect gravel will be sapping corrugations, sometimes roads will disappear into animal tracks. Sometimes there will be river crossing where you are not expecting them. Some parts which are marked as tracks don't have a track at all and you just moving across the terrain. The hike a bike sections are tough and long and made tougher by the thin air. This is all part of the fun but you have to readjust your mileage expectations.

I also personally think a MTB would be generally faster than a gravel bike, and I for the parts we rode a fat bike or mid fat would have been handy! I also would have gone for flat pedals over spds, the hike a bikes trashed all of our cycling shoes so badly that the soles were coming away from the shoe.

It is the most spectacular place - they will have an incredible time.

Nice one Gavin.

All of the roads take longer than you expect, even if you expect them to take longer than you expect.

Excellent - sounds like a wonderful trip! I'd love to be doing it but would also be terrified. I think I'd rather tour there than try to race.

Racing means other people around though so if you have to resort to eating other racers, there's no witness left to DQ you..

Gotta be Lee Craigie for this in the singles IMO

Had a google as I didn't follow 2016 and she has been mentioned a few times.
Looks like both of 86 are listed as Male
https://www.silkroadmountainrace.cc/2018-startlist/

Rickie Cotter is riding too , and she came off better in the Divide.

this looks brutal.

Lots of the builds I've seen have got TT extensions on, are these likely to be for aero purposes or just to have another position to be in? can't imagine they're likely to be going fast enough much to justify much aero ness

I saw a video of Chris Hall’s bike set up. I think he said he had aero bars first and foremost as somewhere to hang stuff and also to give a further position. Aero and gravel rather wipe each other out.

Even if they're not used much, extra arm/hand positions, plus useful for mounting stuff like Garmins, trackers, food, etc.

Looks like Lee Craigie has gone for flat bars and no aero bars - I wonder whether we'll some of those on 'adventure'/gravel bikes regret it when it comes to the really sketchy bits, i think i'd like the added handling ability of wide flats